Assembly blocks for play and learning have been widespread for a long time. The assembly blocks are formed of polyhedrons, such as rectangular parallelepipeds, cubes, triangle poles, etc., having protrusions and recessed portions at surfaces of the polyhedrons, and are connected to each other by fitting the protrusions into the recessed portions to be assembled into a desired shape. In recent years, assembly blocks which are provided with motors and cause the motors to drive movable parts thereof have gained popularity.
For example, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. H7-61382 (Patent Literature 1) proposes an assembly block kit of a locomotive which is provided with a motor and travels along rack rails. A gear is mounted to a drive shaft driven by the motor, and the gear is engaged with the rack rails and rotated to cause the locomotive to travel.
Meanwhile, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H10-108985 (Patent Literature 2) proposes an assembly block including: function exhibiting means that exhibits functions such as a servomotor, a buzzer, etc.; control means that controls the function exhibiting means; and communication means that communicates with another assembly block through a network, thereby realizing complicated actions with a simple wiring. Patent Literature 2 provides an embodiment in which caterpillars of a bulldozer are driven by a motor via a gear.
In Patent Literature 1, however, since the use of the motor is limited to the locomotive, a user has to purchase the whole kit of the locomotive. Regarding the assembly block disclosed in Patent Literature 2, a user has to purchase one by one special parts prepared for different purposes of rotation shafts rotated by the motor.
The present invention is made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide: an assembly block with a servomotor which can be used in various ways, without requiring special parts used for rotation shafts only; and an assembly block kit including the assembly block with the servomotor.